DON’T CHASE YOUR MARKET, MAKE YOUR MARKET.

FIELD REPORT / SEC. 01 / CLASSIFIED

I came up on the licensee side.

I know what the approval costs.

Twenty years in licensed product.
Soft goods and hard goods.

I'd rather show you how I think than send you a resume.

FILED 09.27.26 / RECORD RETAINED

FIELD REPORT / SEC. 02 / CLASSIFIED

Soft goods. Twenty years in apparel, start to finish. Came up in technical design, co-founded Sovereign Code and ran creative across men's, big and tall, boys, and childrenswear to $14M in two years, with product development handled directly in Guangzhou. Private label and licensed programs into Nordstrom, Macy's, Tilly's, PacSun, Zumiez, and The Buckle. Angry Birds x Star Wars, a two-IP collab I creative directed and designed, sold through at Walmart. Consulted on Disney and Star Wars IP at 5th Sun. Have seasoned relationships in the space.

Hard goods. A Starbucks licensed program through Nestlé approvals, $1.9M at Walmart and $7.2M at Costco. A private-label stainless line for Williams Sonoma's luxury assortment. iPACK, a Costco-exclusive soft goods brand, $7M in six months.

Same approval process. Different manufacturing reality. Knowing where those two diverge is most of the job.

Most people have one.

FILED 09.27.26 / RECORD RETAINED

FIELD REPORT / SEC. 03 / CLASSIFIED

I came up in technical design.

Construction, fit, patternmaking, washes, trims, finishing. I learned those before I learned to art direct, and I never stopped using them.

Lip Service and Kill City, doing offshore and domestic technical development across knits, wovens, denim, and outerwear, including the licensed House of Blues program and premium SMU development for Beams Japan, American Rag, and Kitson LA.

Then years of product development handled directly in Guangzhou, inside the factories, on the calendar.

That's why I can tell you early whether a graphic is going to hold at print, whether a trim is going to cost more than it's worth, and whether a fit comment is going to add two weeks nobody has.

FILED 09.27.26 / RECORD RETAINED

FIELD REPORT / SEC. 04 / CLASSIFIED

On AI, I'm past the part where people are still arguing about it.

I build AI product imagery, working from tech packs straight to catalog at about a 98% success rate. No sample, no shoot, no studio day. It's more cost effective than photography and it performs best on PDPs.

I've done this directly and through a partnership with Qreal.ai, including work for Walmart in consumer electronics: 3D product content, PDP assets, ad creative, PDQ displays, and instructional video.

The reason it matters for a licensing business is speed through approval. You can show a licensor the product before it exists, in the right colorway, on the right body, in the right environment, and revise it the same day instead of the same month.

Your posting asks for emerging design technologies and digital product visualization. This is already how I work.

FILED 09.27.26 / RECORD RETAINED

FIELD REPORT / SEC. 05 / CLASSIFIED

Let me drop the professional voice for a second.

I know this IP. Not because I researched it for a meeting, but because most of it has been on in my house my whole life. Some of the biggest films ever made, and now I'm watching a lot of it again with three kids.

I'm not going to pretend I know the full portfolio from the outside. I'd rather earn the right to have opinions about it than act like I already do.

What I do know is what it feels like to want the thing on the shelf because of what it reminds you of. That's the entire business.

FILED 09.27.26 / RECORD RETAINED

FIELD REPORT / SEC. 06 / CLASSIFIED

Form 06 — Anticipated questions Answered in advance

You're in Irvine. This is four days a week in Universal City.

I know what that drive is. I'm saying yes with my eyes open, because I want this one specifically.

What's your PLM experience?

I used ApparelMagic for years, though that was over a decade ago. These systems aren't hard to pick up when the SOPs are good.

And if the SOPs aren't good, we get to kill two birds with one stone.

You've run your own studio. Why come inside?

Consulting means you present and then you hand it off. I've spent years building things I watched drift after I left, and I'd rather be in the room when the call gets made.

What do you actually do in the first month?

Shut up, listen, and learn as much as I can as fast as I can. Stay out of the way of people who already know what they're doing.

Where I can make something go smoother, I help. That's it for month one.

What's it like working with you?

I'll love your product like it's mine, and I'll make the case for what I think sells. Hard, and with a reason behind it.

But I'm not precious about whose idea wins. I'd rather be part of a team that gets to the right answer than be the guy who was right. Once the call is made I execute it and stop relitigating.

How do you handle licensor feedback you disagree with?

I take it seriously and I ask what's underneath it, because the note is usually a symptom of something they can't say directly.

Most of the time there's a version that satisfies the concern and keeps what made the design good. When there isn't, they own the IP and I move.

What do you do when the creative is right but the business case isn't?

Kill it early. I lead with what not to do. Killing the wrong moves early frees the budget and the calendar for the ones that work.

On a portfolio this size, the cost of a slow no is bigger than the cost of a fast one.

End of Form 06

FILED 09.27.26 / RECORD RETAINED

FIELD REPORT / SEC. 07 / CLASSIFIED

Where would someone like me be useful to you?

I've applied through the portal like everybody else.
This page is the part the portal doesn't have room for.

Ask me the hard questions in person. I'll bring the rest.

Jona Grey
jona@thepdfgroup.com

FILED 09.27.26 / RECORD RETAINED